#LeBronMeetEbony takes focus off cancer for a night

MIAMI — Even with their one-point loss to the loathed Indiana Pacers, the Miami Heat returned home Sunday from their three-game trip with three victories.

At least that's the way it felt, particularly to forward LeBron James.

For all the consternation of falling short in Indianapolis, the Heat followed up the loss to the Pacers with shorthanded blowouts of the Detroit Pistons and Milwaukee Bucks. During that Saturday victory over the Bucks at BMO Harris Bradley Center, James provided a victory of another sort.

A social-media victory. A compassionate victory. A victory that transcended the 88-67 final score.

It was a victory that began back in February, when the Twitter hashtag #LeBronMeetEbony went viral. That's Ebony as in Ebony Nettles-Bey, a 16-year-old girls basketball player for Verona High School in Wisconsin who late last summer had trouble breathing and ultimately was diagnosed with stage-four Rhabdomyosarcoma, a type of cancer in the soft tissues.

The illness neither kept the junior from the court, at times taking chemotherapy and radiation treatment the same day as games, nor from her dream of meeting her idol, the Heat's James.

Then came Saturday, when she was invited to the Bucks' game against the Heat, told courtside seats were made available for her to watch James, perhaps have him run by in acknowledgment.

Only there was a whole lot more, the Heat and Bucks working behind the scenes on a night that would have her escorting the Heat from the locker room to the court, shooting pregame with the team, lining up alongside James for the national anthem, later receiving his game jersey.

"It meant everything to me," she said, optimistic about her prognosis, saying her tumors are shrinking. "I just started crying, tears of joy."

It might have meant even more to James.

"Basketball is a small part of our lives," he said. "The way that it can impact someone else's life, it puts it all in perspective. And what she's going through, every single day, the challenges she's facing every single day with the stage-four cancer that she has, she's the stronger one out of us two.

"She's unbelievable, and for me to be someone that in her last wish is to meet me, it's like a 'wow' factor. It's like, it puts it all in perspective knowing I have that much influence and that much, I don't know, strength for someone to say that if I have one opportunity, I'm thinking, 'Why not go to Disney World? Why not do something cool? Or why not do something way cooler?' You know, 'Why me? Why would you want to meet me as your last wish?' It's a blessing."

James played in shoes inscribed with "Ebony Strong" and "#CancerWho."

"I didn't need to meet her to understand and know how strong she was," he said. "But it's great to be around her and see her enthusiasm even with what she's dealing with. It's like she doesn't even have it. It's like it's not going to stop her. And that's a very unique trait. She loves the game and the game does some great things to people."

Hearty homestand

Following the blowout victories over the Pistons and Bucks, the Heat's schedule turns meatier with a five-game homestand that opens Monday against the Toronto Raptors at AmericanAirlines Arena and also includes games against the playoff-jockeying New York Knicks and Brooklyn Nets.

"It will be very competitive," coach Erik Spoelstra said. "We have to only focus first on Toronto on Monday. That'll be a great challenge. It seems like every time we've played them, they've improved."

The Raptors are back in the playoffs for the first time since Heat center Chris Bosh still was a member of the team.

"It was good for them, especially the way they cleaned everything out and kind of had a makeover of the team and the organization a little bit," said Bosh, who left the Raptors in the 2010 offseason, with Toronto in the playoffs for the first time since 2008.